Nearwater Property Group Home Inspections Blog

Often times inspecting basements, crawl spaces, and attics, I'll find dead mice. Luckily this one had been down there a while, was pretty dried out and didn't smell. It was quite large.. I'd say more of a rat than a mouse as its torso was about 8". These animals are resiliant and the smaller ones can squeeze through a 1/4" gap. Not only are they dirty, but they carry diseases and they leave their droppings. These little guys can wreak havoc on mechanical systems and electric panels causing $Thousands in damages and also electrical fires. One way to keep these pests on the outside is to seal the perimeter of all penetrations in the siding. This can be done with caulk or steel wool. If you do see evidence of mice (tunnels in your insulation, chew marks, or droppings - deal with it quickly. Solutions range from setting your own traps to professional extermination programs.

Anytime you see this amount of "sealant" (some people refer to it "tar") you know there was a problem with the flashing. Let's just preface this by saying if a roof is properly flashed, you should see no sealant. This boot flashing is made of aluminum and rubber. The aluminum goes under the shingles above the vent and above the shingles below the vent so the water sheds. Installed properly the rubber "boot" slides around the PVC pipe and provides a waterproof seal. My guess is that this boot flashing wasn't properly installed or was damaged or nicked during installation. The homeowner probably had some water intrusion to the second floor sheetrock ceiling below during a heavy rain and overcompensated with a large amount of sealant to fix it. Ironically, the shingles were still in great shape with many years of life remaining.

Whole house fans were common back in the 1970's. A louvered vent in the ceiling of the 2nd floor hallway plus a huge fan in the attic and you could change all the air in the house within a short time. This was helpful in the summer months to pull the cool air into the windows at night. A lot of these houses have been retrofitted with central air conditioning systems now making the whole house fan obsolete. The only thing the louvered vent in the hallway ceiling does these days is leak heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. If your whole house fan has been decommissioned, make sure that you insulate above it. Removing the louver and re-sheetrocking the ceiling would be an even better option.

Make sure you get the right kind of vent cover for the job. This multi-slatted vent cover is really intended for bathroom vents. See how the cross pieces catch the lint? This will quickly build up over time and before you know it, the dryer will take longer to dry your clothes, use more energy, and yes -- become a fire hazard! I'm speaking from personal experience of seeing a friend's house burn literally to the ground due to a clogged dryer vent. The proper vent for this application would be a hooded vent with a one flap cover. Even then, it's recommended to get your dryer vent cleaned annually.

With my drone, I can get up close and personal with my friend the chimney. This house was built in 1978 and the chimney hasn't been maintained since the day it was built. There is a concrete "crown" at the top of the chimney. This crown is designed to shed any water and prevent it from seeping into the bricks - until the crown cracks and it doesn't! This is when problems really happen because here in the Northeast water seeps in and during the winter months, the freezing and thawing literally break the bricks and mortar apart. More cracks = more water/ice and greater destruction. People don't realize that a minimal amount of maintenance every 5-10 years to refresh the crown and seal the bricks can preserve a chimney and avoid an expensive repair. Expensive they are -- just to break down and replace the top 6-10 layers of bricks can run up to $10,000 for a larger chimney!

The clay chimney liner on the left has completely deteriorated with weather, corrosive boiler exhaust, and time. The one on the right for the fireplace is intact. I'm not the first person to note that the liner on the left is defective as the chimney has been retrofitted with a metal liner. Without the metal liner, noxious fumes could enter the home. This is a good reason to employ Carbon Monoxide detectors on all floors when you have any types fuel being combusted in your home.

This black, shiny, rough crust is called creosote. It is the byproduct of burning unseasoned wood or wet logs. Moisture rises with the smoke and it then sticks to the inside of the firebox and chimney and builds up over time. If creosote ignites, it will cause a chimney fire and ruin the chimney. It can be very expensive because the chimney would then need to be replaced. Avoid this by burning seasoned, dry wood. If you have a lot of wood fires, have a Chimney Sweep clean and inspect your chimney for safety every year.

Every inspector has a checklist of things to look for in a breaker panel. I look for rust and corrosion, missing knock-outs, burned wires, and over-breakering amongst other things. One of the most common items to look for though is a "double-tap". A double-tap is when an electrician attaches two distribution wires to the same breaker in the panel. Why is this bad though? The simple answer is that most breakers are designed to take only one wire. Once you attach 2 wires, you're asking the breaker to do something it was not designed to do. One of the wires might come loose, or perhaps there is a load on one wire which makes it heat up and expand just enough so that the other wire which is still cool comes loose. Either way, when there is a loose wire, the electricity tries to "jump" over the gap, creating sparks and potential fire. A licensed electrician has a few different solutions to address a shortage of breakers in a panel. If there are extra spaces in the panel, the electrician can just add another breaker. If not, they can attach a "pigtail" (short wire) to the two wires with a wire nut, and then attach the pigtail to the breaker. Finally, to make things even more complicated, a breaker with a captured square washer under the wire binding screw can normally be compliantly double-tapped. These generally include breakers manufactured by Square D and Eaton Cutler.

It starts with black or green algae about five years after installation--sooner if the roof is under a canopy of trees and doesn't get direct sunlight. A few years later you start to see lichens taking root and then shortly thereafter, moss. Lichens and moss retain water and their roots climb up in between the shingles, separating them, and causing water intrusion. In a cold climate, the water retained in the moss and lichens freezes and thaws, damaging the roof even more and shortening its life. A simple solution to prevent this problem is to "softwash" the roof every 5 or so years with algicide to kill the living organisms. For a cedar shingle roof, you can then follow with a fine spray of tung, or linseed oil to preserve the wood. Not only will your roof look better, but it will last many years longer.